Jon Topping

Because Joseph of Arimathea was a member of the council of the Sanhedrin, he ends up strengthening the historical reliability of different aspects of the story of the burial of Jesus Christ. However, scholars like Bart Ehrman try to downplay his importance, even to the point of denying the story altogether. But this type of skepticism doesn’t match with what we know about history.

Skeptics will argue that, if crucifixion victims weren’t buried, then Jesus probably wasn’t either. We’ll look at the historical sources showing the fate of crucifixion victims, the sorts of exceptions that were made, and whether Roman and Jewish history lines up with how the Gospels describe what happened to Jesus’ body after He was killed.

A main piece of evidence used for the "imposter on the cross" argument is the Gospel of Barnabas. Some think this text is even better...